The Michigan Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church voted to send a proposal to split the denomination over the long-debated issue of homosexuality to the UMC’s top legislative body.
Last week, the Michigan conference became the third annual conference and the first based in the United States to support sending the Protocol of Reconciliation and Grace through Separation, which would allocate $25 million for Methodists who adhere to biblical sexual ethics to vote to leave the UMC and create their own denomination, to the UMC General Conference.
UMC bishops and activists had first announced support for the proposal in January.
At a special session held at Goodrich Chapel in Albion, Michigan conference delegates voted 927 to 92 in favor of sending the proposal for consideration.
The Michigan Conference reported that while many attendees of the session spoke in favor of the protocol, the approved did not officially endorse the separation proposal.
“Unlike the two international conferences that acted before the March 7 vote in Albion, The Michigan Conference did not endorse the Protocol,” explained the conference.
“The single motion brought by the delegation for action by the Special Session was ‘to send the petition entitled ‘Reconciliation and Grace Through Separation and Restructuring’ (BOD New ¶2556)’ to the 2020 General Conference.’”
SOURCE: Christian Post, Michael Gryboski
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